The Chicago-based nonprofit United States Artists has revealed its list of 2019 fellows, who will each receive an unrestricted $50,000 cash prize. The 45 fellows this year, who are all based in the U.S., were awarded in 10 categories: Architecture & Design, Craft, Dance, Film, Media, Music, Theater & Performance, Traditional Arts, Visual Art, and Writing.
Among the fellows are filmmaker Nuotama Frances Bodomo (who was featured in ARTnews’s “Africa Now” issue); the Detroit-based collective Complex Movements; and artists Firelei Báez, Juliana Huxtable, Wu Tsang, Cecilia Vicuña, and Simone Leigh (who also won this year’s $100,000 Hugo Boss Prize).
“What I love about this group, collectively, is that it really feels like they’re collapsing the distance between all these disparate disciplines while also maintaining the legacies of the things they make,” Deana Haggag, the president of United States Artists, told ARTnews. She pointed to the diversity of the fellows as a sign that the 2019 awardees reflect the makeup of the U.S. “I feel, especially at this moment in our country, it’s nice to look at a group of folks who look like the people we live around every day,” she said.
Visual Art
Firelei Báez, multidisciplinary artist, New York
Juliana Huxtable, multidisciplinary artist and writer, Brooklyn, New York
Simone Leigh, multidisciplinary artist, New York
Wu Tsang, filmmaker and artist, Los Angeles
Cecilia Vicuña, multidisciplinary artist and poet, New York
Dyani White Hawk, painter and mixed media artist, Minneapolis
